[untitled] Modern Language Notes, (1907-02-01), pages 58-59

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58

MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES.

[Vol. xxii, No. 2.

songs. Twenty-two songs are arranged for solo
singing, while the rest are composed for mixed
quartette. If any unfavorable criticism is to be
passed on the book, it is in connection with the
'key' in which some of the songs are pitched.
Whether composed for one voice or four, it is to
be borne in mind that the mass of singers will
carry the melody in unison. Accordingly songs
for use in general congregational singing should
be so pitched as never to carry the melody to
high G, not even to a sustained F. A few, but
only a few, of the pieces in this collection will be
less available for not having observed this limita-
tion, unless the school using it has some strong
high voices.

The book will be a decided boon to German
teachers and students all over this country and
will surely contribute materially to spread the
knowledge of the beautiful German songs and
thus vitalize and inspire the work of instruction-
It is offered at a moderate price, though well
printed and worthily bound. Those who avail
themselves of the excellent collection will have
the additional satisfaction of knowing that they
are contributing to the cause of Germanistic edu-
cation in Wisconsin through the German istische
Gesellschaft of the State University, to which the
royalties for the book are dedicated.

W. H. Cabbuth.

University of Kansas.

Dewtsches Liederbueh fur amerikanische Studenten.
Texte und Melodieen nebst erklarenden und
biographischen Anmerkungen. Herausgegeben
im Auftrage der Germanistischen Gesellschaft
der Staats-Universitat von Wisconsin. Boston :
D. C. Heath and Co., 1906. 8vo., vi and
157 pp.

Whenever I spend an evening in one of the
attractive fraternity houses here, and see the fine
piano piled high with pieces of sheet music the
gaudy colors of which fairly pain the sensitive eye ;
when I hear the boys sing for hours at a time such
inspiring sentiments as : "If the man in the
moon were a coon, coon, coon; " "On yo' way,
babe, on yo' way, chase yo'self down by the bay ;"

" And their eyes went goo, goo, goo," and others
quite as uplifting and inspiring as these, set to
music fully as inane as the words, my mind goes
back to student days in Leipsic and to the student
and folk songs which we sang. What a variety
of themes they touched, from the pathos of the
rustic lovers' farewell to the roaring, triumphant
song in praise of the victorious Fatherland ; from
the stately choral with its religious sentiment to the
most rollicking, boisterous drinking song. Some
were extremely nonsensical, far more so than our
American favorites, but it was a witty nonsense, a
"genialer Blodsinn" and the mind was not lulled
into dull inanity thereby.

A "rag- time coon song" might be a pleasing
bit of variation in an evening devoted to music.
Our students, however, seem to have nothing else ;
they waste their time with these shallow produc-
tions, all of which are alike, and not one in one
hundred of which possesses any originality, any
real sentiment, any virility, or the slightest grain of
"genialer Blodsinn." It seems almost as if our
youth had no " eehte Jugendpoesie," no appre-
ciation of " eehter gefuhlvoller Jugendgesang."
This, however, I do not believe to be true. If our
students could hear good songs and hear them
often enough, they would learn to appreciate them,
and would avoid the present worthless stuff which
steals away so much of their time. Even if there
is no great inherent impulse towards virile and
genuinely pathetic sentiments, set to worthy melo-
dies, a feeling can and must be developed from
without. If our students can hear and sing good
foreign songs and learn to appreciate them, one
of the most important steps in the achievement of
a real culture will have been taken. The actual
production of original, genuinely American songs
of sterling worth will follow then in due time as a
matter of course.

No other foreign nation has so many splendid
songs especially adapted to our college youth as
Germany, and those who aid in making our
students familiar with these German songs, with
this vitally important element of true culture, are
deserving of the heartiest thanks. An important
contribution in this field is the Deutsches Lieder-
bueh, complied by the " Germanistische Gesell-
schaft" of the University of Wisconsin, and
published by D. C. Heath and Co.

February, 1907.]

MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES.

59

It was not an easy task which the committee
imposed upon itself in undertaking to select from
the hundreds of German songs those most charac-
teristic of the different phases of German life and
at the same time most worthy of assimilation into
our own ; but it has nevertheless succeeded in
producing a book admirably adapted to the needs
of American students. The selection of songs is
most excellent. Those who have partaken of
German student life will doubtless miss one or two
old favorites, but of the eight hundred odd
Kommerslieder in Schauenburg, only a limited
number could be considered in a collection of a
hundred songs which contains, as it properly
should, not only student and folk songs, but also
other well known songs of a different character,
such as Luther's "Ein' feste Burg" or the
Christmas songs: "O du Selige" and "Stille
Nacht." In order to give at least an insight into
all phases of German music, the committee has
also introduced a number of selections intended for
solo performance. Here there is a greater oppor-
tunity for difference in taste, and the choice has
been perhaps less felicitous than in the student and
folk songs. One may doubt, for example,
whether so much space should have been given to
the somewhat hackneyed "Das ist im Leben
hasslich eingerichtet." In general, however, the
committee has been extremely successful in carry-
ing out its purpose to provide a book which should
be at the same time a Kommersbueh and Volks-
liederbuch, and which should portray all the
varying emotions of the German people as
expressed in song.

It is to be regretted that the committee has
changed the key of the melodies in so many cases
and has pitched so many of the most popular ones
so high. A group of young people, such as
constitutes the membership of the German clubs,
where this book will be most frequently used, has
difficulty in reaching F,not to mention F sharp, and
when it is confronted with G, the result is usually
disastrous. This is especially true in clubs com-
posed entirely of men. Nor can one expect to find
often among the students a pianist who is skillful
enough to transpose the music to the proper key.
Of the songs intended for general participation,
thirteen contain this high G. Here are included
such favorites as ' ' Die Lorelei, " " Es ist bestimmt

in Gottes Eat," "Wir hatten gebauet," "Das
zerbrochene Ringlein, " " Der Mai ist gekommen ' '
and "Ergo bibamus." In each of these cases,
Erk's Lieder-Schatz (Edition Peters) and Fried-
blender's 100 Gommerslieder (Edition Peters)
give a decidedly lower setting to the same melodies.
It is to be hoped that in a new edition this serious
defect may be remedied by setting the melodies
in a lower key. In some cases the change of
key and the new harmonization has given quite a
different character to the song, cf. the setting of
"Der Konig in Thule" (p. 51). Besides
being set higher, "Der Wirtin Tochterlein" is
given with Silcher's melody for the even stanzas
and with a slight change in the original melody.
This is also unfortunate, for such extremely well
known songs should be set as they are usually
sung in Germany ; the representative and not
the unusual form is the one which should be
given.

A compact register of poets and composers
adds value to the book by giving short chrono-
logical and biographical details. Moreover, the
most important songs are provided with short
explanatory notes, describing their origin and the
customs attending their use.

In external appearance also, the book is very
pleasing. While not too clumsy to be easily
employed as a text for class-room use, it is still of
sufficient size to permit the use of large clear type
in words and music so that it will be fully as satis-
factory at the piano as standard sheet-music.

Besides its worth as a song book for social
gatherings and the home, the Liederbuch is, as the
compilers state in the preface, admirably adapted
for class-room work as an introduction to German
lyric poetry.

On the whole the committee is to be congratu-
lated, upon the successful outcome of its labor of
love, and it is to be hoped that the book will find
its way into all our schools and colleges, and that
its use will create a feeling among the youth of
our land for that which is good in music and
verse, and for the best types of popular song.

Paul R. Pope.

Cornell University.